The CEO’s Role in Every Hire
"The first 150 hires are your cultural co-founders. It's up to you, the founder, to get every one right."
- Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn
150 isn't necessarily the magic number for every company, but I couldn't agree more with the essence of his message, even though there's no way you'll get "every one right."
As we grew my last SaaS business from a small handful of founding team members to our first 110, here's an overview of my approach to ensuring we got as many right as possible:
Candidates went through our normal, extensive selection process led by the hiring team lead and the People Team. I was not involved in this initial phase (unless the role was reporting directly to me).
Once the team lead and her team decided on their selection from among the candidates, they would send that candidate to me for a final interview.
Keep in mind, I only interviewed the final choice, not a group of finalists. My job was not to make their decision for them. Instead, it was to verify their selection...or to veto it.
If it was a strong candidate and I knew I was going to approve the offer, I would use the final portion of our discussion trying to convince them why they should join our team. As the founder and/or CEO, you sit in a unique seat. Don't underestimate your ability to influence the candidate's decision to accept an offer.
Once my interview was complete and I decided to approve the candidate, it was easy. I'd simply tell the hiring team lead to go for it and I’d offer any help in "closing" the deal.
If I was vetoing the candidate, then I was sure to explain why. If the team says "this is our choice," and you don't have very valid, specific reasons why it should be a "no," you'll lose credibility with your team and this process won't work for long.
So why do this? Why not enable your team to make the choice alone?
As Aneel Bhusri (co-founder and CEO of Workday) says, "In five to ten years, your first employees will continue to uphold your company’s culture and value system.” So getting it right as often as possible is critically important to the long-term health of your business.
I don't believe I was necessarily uniquely talented at interviewing. However, there are a few advantages based on the seat a founder / CEO is in.
First, they must prioritize the company's values and culture above all else, and hiring decisions are a key way to do this.
Also, often the hiring team lead can subconsciously be in a rush to fill a seat. They and their team feel the pain of not having enough team members. As the leader of the company, you shouldn't feel that same immediate pressure and should have more discipline to focus on the right long-term decision.
Finally, if you consistently interview every finalist, you'll be in the unique position to see everyone that gets hired. You'll have the context and perspective of seeing who became your stars and who didn't work out. This will allow you to see patterns others might miss.
By the way, I stopped at 110 because I became too significant a bottleneck in the process to maintain the speed required as we were growing. As I said, I don't believe there's a "magic number" for all situations. I stopped at 110, Reid Hoffman mentions 150 above, and Aneel Bhusri did it up until 500 as CEO of Workday.
You'll need to decide what's right in your situation, but I'm confident in almost all companies that it goes well beyond just the first couple dozen hires.
It's time consuming, but done right, you and your company will benefit from the effort.